Iaido was good last night, Keith the usual sensei -- and the only person I know that can switch betweem fluent japanese and a broad Yorkshire accent -- was up some scafolding reroofing his house which meant an evening of free practice and a rare chance to work through each of the 12 Seitei Kata one after another, before moving onto a couple of the old form Koryu.

As Keith reminds us so often that we're tempted to get it on a t-shirt for him each kata should be one fluid motion with changes of pace and I'm definitely starting to see the transitions smooth between it all.

Got into an interesting conversation with one of the guys there through when I found out he does Kyudo (Japanese archery) and is heading over to the International Seminar in Hungary in a couple of weeks.

Don't know if anybody will have come across John Martyn before, I know I hadn't until a couple of months back when there was a documentary on about his life which my Dad had recorded and he sat me down saying "watch this"

Small Hours just seems to be one of those songs I keep coming back to, well worth watching, or at least listening too if you can't get past the 70's Sinbad the Sailor look he seems to have going on in this clip.

When it comes to news I tend to get all mine from online sources these days, and will rarely pick up an actual paper unless I'm waiting around for something and am looking for ways to kill time.

The main ones that get signed into every day are BBC for general information and a "we don't really want to write anything that's going to upset people too much" overview of what's going on in the world and then The Register for news of a more technical nature and the occasional nugget of gold like THIS article which leads on to THIS online tool for calculating effects of metor impact based on distance from impact point.  I mean come on, what GM doesn't see something like that and get the urge to run some sort of post apocalypse game?

Some people have far, far too much time on there hands to watch Guy Richie films and go "Hey, you know what.... those lines would fit into Star Wars amazingly well!"

Not work safe in any way; unless you're work mates don't mind a lot of swearing and talk about people being fed to pigs, but very very funny.

Last week was a little odd. On Thursday there was an open evening at the Junior school Anwen's moving up to in September and Jeni, Anwen and I went along to have a look around, meet teachers, buy school uniforms etc

That in itself isn't the odd bit - although it's weird thinking that Anwen is already moving up to Junior school this year - the odd bit is that this was the same Junior school that I went to some two and a bit decades ago and that is really really strange.

It was the same thing with the Infants school, but my memories of being there are quite muted; vague snatches of songs we learnt about Dinosaurs, getting to do a report on Giraffes, and sitting on the carpet with friends drawing pictures of buffaloes (it's really odd what sticks with you).

For Junior school though my memories are much more vivid so it was so strange wandering around with Anwen and seeing things that I remembered from when I was there, like the map of the worlds mountain ranges that's still up on the wall, or spending lunchtimes in what will be Anwen's classroom learning to play the recorder and double bass.

It's also weird that I feel strangely affronted by the fact that they've put her into a different school House than the one my sister and I were both in, but I'm shaking my head with a smile as I type that... even though it's true.

The last couple of weeks have been fabulous.

My folks have been away so I've been doing 5 hour days at work and getting to take Anwen to school in the mornings and pick her up again in the afternoon. All in all I think it works out as getting the opportunity to spend an extra 3-4 hours each day with her.

Now if I could just convince work that less really is worth more -- or at least the same -- when it comes to the working day vs salary debate I'd be a very happy man.

But great as they are when it comes to being flexible when things like this come up, that may be pushing things a little too far.

This weekend just gone was good, met up with Craig, Derek and El Davo for a couple of beers and lunch on Saturday followed by an impromptu game of Nightlife back at Derek's afterwards -- such a pity that it got overshadowed by Masquerade as it's a great game -- and then spent Sunday with Kat and met up with Frodo on in the evening.

One thing that got recommended to me on Saturday was 'Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire', a new series that's just started being shown on BBC2 on Thursdays. They've got the first two episodes on BBC iPlayer HERE and if you consider yourself slightly geeky with a somewhat twisted sense of humour take a look as you're sure to enjoy it.

The things about you I appreciate
May seem indelicate:
I’d like to find you in the shower
And chase the soap for half an hour.
I’d like to have you in my power
And see your eyes dilate.
I’d like to have your back to scour
And other parts to lubricate.
Sometimes I feel it is my fate
To chase you screaming up a tower
Or make you cower
By asking you to differentiate
Nietzsche from Schopenhauer.
I’d like successfully to guess your weight
And win you at a fete.
I’d like to offer you a flower.

( Read more... )

Friday night was a refreshing change, it's been ages since I've gone out to Jilly's.  Saw some people that I haven't seen for ages. Finally got to meet Cath properly in a much more relaxed setting than at her wedding. Danced like a loon to some very good music. Drank a moderate amount and finally crawled back to Roger's for around 4ish.

It brought back a lot of pleasant memories of Friday nights in Huddersfield years ago and that nostalgic revelry of good times gone back which are just far enough away now to blur any sharp edges.

Saturday I was up and about shortly after 9 - DAMN YOU sodding internal clock!!! - and generally bimbled around until other folks came to several hours later.  I came across THIS the BBCs 5 minute interview with Bill Bailey which then led onto the ones with Stephen Fry and Ian Hislop; which passed a bit of time (well just over 15 minutes) and got me thinking that those three would be a great group of people to have a chat with in a pub.

Stephen Fry mentions one of his current projects as being the voice acting for the Cheshire Cat, I don't know if anybody else has heard of THIS yet, but I heard about it a few weeks back and it looks simply stunning.

Tim Burton does Alice in Wonderland... and I just don't think you could possibly get a better cast than seems to have been put together for it.  Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, and Christopher Lee just to name a few.  I have to say I think I can see Barbara Windsor doing really well as the Dormouse as well.

Definitely going to be one to watch.

I don't usually go in for stealing other peoples posts, but was tracing back a link from karohemd 's journal and came across this that a friend of his madmoses had posted a while ago.

It grabbed my attention and since there's nobody else on my friends list that's on his I figured I'd repost it.

It's a video from the developers of Resistance 2, a zombie game for the PS3 where they show how they've come up with some of the more gruesome sound effects using various fruit and vegetables of all things.



Suffice to say it amused me on a Friday morning.